Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 16

Phoebe.—As the Roman Church is especially exhorted to receive Phoebe, it has been inferred that she was one of the party to whom St. Paul entrusted his Epistle, if not the actual bearer of it herself.

Our sister—that is, in a spiritual sense—a fellow-Christian.

Servant.—Rather, a deaconess, keeping the technical term. Deacons were originally appointed to attend to the needs of the poorer members of the Church. This is the first mention of women-deacons, for whom instructions are given to Timothy (1 Timothy 3:11). The necessity for an order of deaconesses would gradually become apparent where women were kept in stricter seclusion, as in Greece and some parts of the East.

Cenchrea.—The port of Corinth, at the head of the Eastern or Saronic Gulf, about nine miles from the city.

In the Lord.—With the awareness that you are performing a Christian act, subject to all those serious obligations implied in the name.

As befits saints.—As Christians ought to receive a fellow-Christian.

Helper.—Patroness or protectress, in the exercise of her office as deaconess.

Of myself also.—Perhaps in illness.

Priscilla.—The correct reading here is Prisca, of which form Priscilla is the diminutive. It is rather remarkable that the wife should be mentioned first. Perhaps it may be inferred that she was the more active and conspicuous of the two.

Aquila was a Jew of Pontus, whom St. Paul had found with his wife at Corinth (Acts 18:1). They had there been converted by him, and afterwards appear in his company at Ephesus (Acts 18:18; Acts 18:26; 1 Corinthians 16:19). At the time when this Epistle was written they were at Rome, but later they seem to have returned to Ephesus (2 Timothy 4:19).

The Jew Aquila, who rather more than a century later made a translation of the Old Testament, critically compared with the LXX. in the Hexapla of Origen, also came from Pontus.

Laid down their own necks.—Whether this expression is to be taken literally or figuratively we do not know, neither can we do more than guess at the event to which it refers. It may have something to do with the tumult at Ephesus, and with that fighting with beasts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:32.

The church that is in their house.—A group of Christians seem to have regularly met in the house of Aquila and Priscilla to worship at Rome, as they had previously done at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:19). Similar instances may be found in Acts 12:12; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2.

Salute.—The same word in Greek is translated interchangeably as “salute” and “greet,” an unnecessary caprice.

Firstfruits of Achaia.—For “Achaia” we should certainly read “Asia”—i.e., the Roman province of Asia. This province was a broad strip of territory covering the entire western end of the peninsula of Asia Minor, from the Propontis in the north to Lycia in the south.

Ephesus was its capital, and the seven “churches in Asia” to which St. John wrote in the Apocalypse—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea—were the most central and important of its cities.

The term “firstfruits of Asia” refers to one of the first converts to Christianity in Asia. (Compare to “firstfruits of Achaia” in 1 Corinthians 16:15; the text of our own passage likely became corrupted through this parallelism.)